Peocess op and apparatus foe saponifying and decomposing



(No Model.) L. RIVIERE.

PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR SAPONIPYING AND DEG OMPOSING PATTY BODIES.

No. 362,856. Patented May 10, 1887.

l Vifilesses [12 Ven 2 01 NITE STATES LOUIS RIVlFiRE, OF PARIS, FRANCE.

PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR SAPONlFYlNG AND DECOMPOSING FATTY BODIES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 362,856, dated May 10, 1887.

Application filed March 11, 1887. Serial No. 230.732.

(No model.) Patented in France August 26, 1885, Nn.17S,S-IS; in England February :5, 1886, No. 72,762; in Belgium February lli, 1886, No. 72,171, and in ltaly December 97, 1886, No. 21,017.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LoUIs Rtvlican, a citt zen of France, residing at Paris, in the Department of the Seine, France, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Treatment and Saponification of Fatty Bodies, of which the following is a specification.

The new or improved process of saponifying or treating fatty bodies which forms part of this invention is carried into effect by an apparatus also forming part of the invention, and named by me the Integrator, whereby the following conditions are secured: first, an extreme subdivision of the materials destined to react one on the other, they being preferably in a liquid state or in suspension in a liquid; second, a continuous and simultaneous How of the said materials in relative volumes determined by the nature of the reactions to be accomplished; third, the combination or union of the several operations in an industrial operation.

The forms, dimensions, and accessory parts can be varied so long as the conditions above named are fulfilled.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is asectional front elevation of the integrator or apparatus as it is or may be employed in prac tice; Fig. 2, a side elevation of a portion of the same, and Fig. 3 a sectional elevation of a form of the apparatus having a series of reaction-chambers, which constitutes a special feature ot invention.

The apparatus or integrator of Figs. 1 and 2 comprises, first, reservoirs.(R R, as show 11,) which contain the bodies between which the reaction is to take place; second, intermediate vessels or receptacles, U U, into which the bodies are conducted by the pipes r (each pro vided with a stop cock) from the reservoirs R R,rcs pectivcl y, and,third, areaction-vessel,V, into which the bodies from both receptacles or vessels U U are conducted by the pipe T and the branches T T, one branch communi- 5 eating with each of the said receptacles or vessels. At the junction of the branches there is a valve, 0, which puts them in communication both at the same time with the pipe T and reaction-vessel V. At the lowest point of each branch T or T there is a pet cock, at or m. 3y opening these pctcocks and comparing the quantities of liquid which run out in a given time, the relative currents flowing through the two branches can be ascertained, and these currents can be regulated by the cocks in the pipes r.

The reaction-vessel V has the general form of a truncated cone inverted, and is provided at some centimeters distance from the small base with a perforated disk, or. The air, gas, or vapor for dividing the reacting-liquids enters the reaction-vessel V by the pipe T' be low the perforated disk n,and passesin streams up through the liquid or liquids therein. As shown, there is an ejector, s, in the pipe T for forcing the air into the reaction-vessel.

The excess of gas or vapor escapes by a pipe communicating with the reaction-vessel at the top, and provided with a stop-cock. The saponified matters liow out by the pipe T, which is provided with a stopcock, r. The reactionwessel can be emptied through the pipe T, provided with a stop-cock, r.

The upper part of the reaction-vessel V is connected with the upper part of the receptacles or vessels U U, so as to equalize the pressures and permit the liquids to flow out by the branches T without overcoming any back pressure in the vessel V.

In the manufacture of potash or soda soaps two reservoirs and two intermediate receptacles or vessels, as shown, are sufticient. into one of these the fat, liquefied and heated to about eighty degrees centigrade, (80 0.,) is delivered, and into the other the lye, (soda lye, for example,) containing, say, up to about fitteen per eentum (15 per cent.) of sodium 'hydrate and heated to the same temperature as the fat. \Vith lyes containing from ten per cent. to fifteen per cent. good results can be attained. The flow is to be regulated in any suitable way-as, for example, by manipulation of the cocks in pipes r, as before eXplained-the proportion of lye necessary for a given volume of fat being variable accord ing to the degree of concentration of the lye. For lyes of fifteen per eentum (15 per cent.) there should be nearly equal volumes of the fatty body and the lye. The saponified products, after escaping from the apparatus, are

delivered into a receptacle of any suitable form and suitably heated, in which the treatment with salt and the separation of the soap from the glycerine and salty water are or may be effected.

In the manufacture of insoluble soaps (limesoap, for example, for, say, the subsequent production of stearic acid by decomposing said lime-soap with an acid) the same procedure is or may be adopted, the lye being replaced by milk of lime. The decomposition of fatty bodies takes place as rapidly as with soda lyes.

In the manufacture of free fat-acids without the intervention of bases, the soda lye or milk of lime is or may be replaced by an acidsuch as sulphuric acid, for example-contained in an enameled receptacle, and the fatty bodies be decomposed in the same apparatus and by the same method into free fat-acids and glycerine-acids.

Moreover, the industrial operations to which this invention relates do not always consist in an interchange of elements between two or more compound bodies, nor yet-in the formation of a new body by means of uncombined elements of different kind. They may consist in the decomposition of compound bodies into their proximate principles or elements. Thus the industrial treatment of fatty bodies sometimes consists in the simple decomposition of these under the influence of steam, which is in this case the sole reagent employed to produce at one and the same time the decomposition and the hydration. These last reactions-that is, the separation of the fatty bodies into the free fat-acids'and glycerine-can be obtained by means of the integrator or apparatus previously described provided with an ejector, just as the decomposition in presence of acids or bases (soda, potash, lime, magnesia, and others) can be obtained industrially in the like apparatus provided with a fan or air-pump.

It is to be remarked that the gaseous current'-that of air, for exampledoes not always have an exclusively mechanical action. It may, for example, have an oxidating effect on, say, a part of the glycerine, and thus effect or assist in effecting a decomposition of the fatty bodies. To effect the decomposition of the fatty bodies by means of water as the sole reagent, it would be necessary, during the continuous flow of the fatty matter melted and brought to about one hundred degrees (100) centigrade, to divide or agitate the same by means of air introduced by the ejector, into which a suitable quantity of "steam is introduced. Moreover, this action can be combined with th at of an acid reagentsuch assulphurous acid, sulphuric acid, or the likeor a basic reagent-such as potash, soda, lime, magnesia, alumina, and the like-to obtain, according to circumstances, free fat-acids or soaps.

While a single integrator or reaction-vessel will ordinarily suffice-as, for example, in the manufacture of a soap-the operations described can be performed by means of a battery or series of integrators or reaction-vessels, as represented in Fig. 3, in which V V V V are the reaction-vessels, each provided with a perforated disk or false bottom, a, and con-- nectedwith one another by the air-conducting pipespand theliquid-conductingpipesq. The parts lettered as in Figs. 1 and 2 have the same function as the parts similarly lettered in those figures.

' The soap from the series of reaction-vessels or purifying fatty bodies, consisting in heating the reacting liquids and establishing currents of the same in due proportion into and through a reaction-chamber, and subjecting them in that vessel to currents of air and steam, or one of them, so as thoroughly to subdivide and mix the same, substantially as described.

2. An apparatusfor the saponifying, decomposing, or purifying of fatty bodies, comprising'a reaction-vessel provided with a perforated disk near the bottom, a pipe for delivering air or other gas or a vapor below said disk, an outlet for the gas or vapor at or near the top of said vessel, a pipe provided with branches for introducing the liquids into said vessel, and a liquid-outlet, substantially as described.

- 3. The apparatus provided with a series of reaction-vessels, each having a perforated disk near the bot-tom, and the gasoutlet connected with the space below said disk in the next vessel of the series, the said vessels being also connected by liquid-conducting pipes, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LoUIs RIVIERE.

Vitnesses:

' H, J ossn,

A. RoUssEL. 

